$308m to give pensioners clearer digital future

ROB Oakeshott's electorate is set to benefit from the Gillard government's $308 million policy to install free set-top boxes to pensioners.

11-05-08 pensioners

ROB Oakeshott's electorate of Lyne is set to be a big beneficiary of the Gillard government's $308 million policy to install free set-top boxes to pensioners to convert analog television to digital.

The independent's sleepy coastal NSW seat has the second-highest number of aged pensioners in the country and on average the highest number of Australians aged over 60.

Communications Minister Stephen Conroy announced yesterday that the government would pay for the installation of set-top boxes for more than two million homes to help people in the transition to digital television by 2013.

The extension of the Household Assistance Scheme will provide households who get the maximum rate on an aged, disability support, carers or war service pension with a free box, installation and demonstration.

It has already assisted people in regional Victoria and South Australia and this funding will be available for households in regional NSW, Western Australia, the Northern Territory and all capital cities.

The bulk of the $308m to be set aside in tomorrow's budget will be spent on the installation of the boxes, raising questions about value for money given the government's history with the Building Education Revolution program and the pink batts fiasco.

The opposition has also raised concerns about whether the money is going to the right people, with communications spokesman Malcolm Turnbull saying small businesses faced bills of thousands of dollars to make the transition.

Pensioner Brian Syms, who lives in Port Macquarie, the main city in Lyne, said the plan was too late, as all the pensioners he knew already had digital televisions.

"I think it is too late and I don't think people are going to get excited about this at all," he said.

Artist Dianne Greenwood spends weekends painting at her cottage on a rural property about 30km from the Port Macquarie city centre. The cottage has a 20-inch analog television, but Ms Greenwood said she would prefer to have a digital version so that she could access the extra channels such as ABC2 and SBS2.

"I think it will be taken up by lots of people," she said. "I'm sure it will be. There is certainly a lot of people who would want to have them and if they are going to connect them as well and do all that, it is going to make it easier for a lot of old people."